Olympic Dam Airport Guide

Olympic Dam Airport (ICAO YOLD) is a private airfield in the South Australian outback that serves BHP's Olympic Dam copper, uranium, gold and silver mine. It sits just north of the planned mining town of Roxby Downs, roughly 510 km north of Adelaide by road. The nearest other regional airports, Coober Pedy and Whyalla, are each about 270 to 280 km away, so most workers and visitors to the district arrive by air here.

BHP operates the airport through Olympic Dam Operations. It is not a public aerodrome in the usual sense, and the flights are largely fly-in fly-out services for the mine workforce. Alliance Airlines flies public and charter services to Adelaide, and Virgin Australia operates charter flights on the same route. Several car rental companies operate from the airport.

The airport has one asphalt runway, 07/25, which is 1,860 m long. BHP built a new, larger runway by August 2021 and the older runway was closed and partly demolished. The airport handled 101,784 passengers and 1,303 aircraft movements in 2024/25, which placed it among the 50 busiest airports in Australia by passenger numbers. BHP has said the airport would move to a site between Roxby Downs and Andamooka if the mine expanded to an open-cut operation.